US Training of Death Squads in Iraq? - War Is A Crime .org

there is a general consensus that these killings are being done to provoke civil war. Alsoworrisome is the fact that we are hearing of people being rounded up by security forces (Iraqi)and then being found dead days later —— apparently when the new Iraqi government recentlydecided to reinstate the death penalty, they had something else in mind.But back to the explosions. One of the larger blasts was in an area called Ma'moun, which is amiddle class area located in west Baghdad. It’s a relatively calm residential area with shops thatprovide the basics and a bit more. It happened in the morning, as the shops were opening up fortheir daily business and it occurred right in front of a butcher’s shop. Immediately after, we heardthat a man living in a house in front of the blast site was hauled off by the Americans because itwas said that after the bomb went off, he sniped an Iraqi National Guardsman. I didn’t thinkmuch about the story —— nothing about it stood out: an explosion and a sniper —— hardly ananomaly. The interesting news started circulating a couple of days later. People from the areaclaim that the man was taken away not because he shot anyone, but because he knew too muchabout the bomb. Rumor has it that he saw an American patrol passing through the area andpausing at the bomb site minutes before the explosion. Soon after they drove away, the bombwent off and chaos ensued. He ran out of his house screaming to the neighbors and bystandersthat the Americans had either planted the bomb or seen the bomb and done nothing about it. Hewas promptly taken away.The bombs are mysterious. Some of them explode in the midst of National Guard and nearAmerican troops or Iraqi Police and others explode near mosques, churches, and shops or in themiddle of sougs.One thing that surprises us about the news reports of these bombs is that they are inevitablylinked to suicide bombers. The reality is that some of these bombs are not suicide bombs ——they are car bombs that are either being remotely detonated or maybe time bombs. All we knowis that the techniques differ and apparently so do the intentions. Some will tell you they areresistance. Some say Chalabi and his thugs are responsible for a number of them. Others blameIran and the SCIRI militia Badir. In any case, they are terrifying. If you're close enough, the firstsound is a that of an earsplitting blast and the sounds that follow are of a rain of glass, shrapneland other sharp things. Then the wails begin —— the shrill mechanical wails of an occasionalambulance combined with the wail of car alarms from neighboring vehicles…… and finally thewail of people trying to sort out their dead and dying from the debris.Then there was this one. On May 13, 2005, a 64 years old Iraqi farmer, Haj Haidar Abu Sijjad,took his tomato load in his pickup truck from Hilla to Baghdad, accompanied by Ali, his 11years old grandson. They were stopped at an American check point and were asked to dismount.An American soldier climbed on the back of the pickup truck, followed by another a few minuteslater, and thoroughly inspected the tomato filled plastic containers for about 10 minutes. HajHaidar and his grandson were then allowed to proceed to Baghdad. A minute later, his grandsontold him that he saw one of the American soldiers putting a grey melon size object in the backamong the tomato containers. The Haj immediately slammed on the brakes and stopped the car atthe side of the road, at a relatively far distance from the check point. He found a time bomb withthe clock ticking tucked among his tomatoes. He immediately recognized it, as he was an exarmysoldier. Panicking, he grabbed his grandson and ran away from the car. Then, realizing that131